Information about the author as well as Kai'Sa

My real name is Patrik, but you can call me either way. I am a long time League of Legends player (started back in Season 1). I mostly play top lane, where my main champion is Jax, but lately I've expanded my interest to other roles. I was D5 in Season 7 and am currently sitting at D5.

Kai'Sa is an interesting champ in that fact that while she is designed as an AD carry, she has both AD and AP scalings on her abilites, meaning she can be built AD, AP or even hybrid. This makes her a very diverse champion.

Summoner spells

Flash: For Kai'Sa we will be going with the standard ADC summoner spells, and the first one is Flash. Helps you get out of sticky situations (Flash over walls etc.)

Heal: Can save you and your support in some cases, or even other teammates, also the small movespeed burst is nice in some cases.

Pros and Cons

Pros

+ Great range with Void Seeker+ Hybrid ratios on Q,W and R+ Has invisibility with evolved Supercharger+ Can disengage and also re-engage quickly if needed

Kai'Sa dashes in-and out from combat and can also peel for herself with her shields, which makes her a great carry champion.

Cons

- No CC- Weak to CC- To evolve all abilities you need to build AD, AP and attack speed, which can be difficult to do in some games depending on the opposing team- Can't control Icathian Rain

Runes

I actually think there are multiple rune sets that you can run on Kai'Sa. I myself like to go either Fleet Footwork or Press the Attack like most of the time on ADC's but it depends on matchups etc also.

For the first rune set we are grabbing the Precision tree, from which we choose either Fleet Footwork or Press the Attack. Fleet Footwork helps your early sustain in lane and also the movespeed boost combined with Supercharger can help you catch opponents. The movespeed boost also helps with your low attack range since it helps you chase down opponents at least a little bit. Press the Attack amplifies your and others damage on the target after you proc it, which helps you take down targets faster.

For the second tree we take either Domination or Sorcery. From Domination we take Sudden Impact since she has the ability to dash in and out so she can proc it when engaging in fights. We also take Ravenous Hunter just to get more healing, which enables you to sustain in fights and survive.

If you go for Sorcery grab Celerity for the extra movespeed and and the little extra AD. Other rune you take is Gathering Storm. If the game prolongs enough it will grant you a good amount of damage.

LIVING WEAPON: When a certain stat reaches the required amount, Kai'Sa can evolve the related basic ability. This has a channel time of 2 seconds, and the upgrade will be canceled if the requirement isn't fulfilled anymore.

Icathian Rain (Q): Kai'Sa releases a swarm of 6 missiles that evenly distributes among nearby enemies, each dealing physical damage. Non-minions take 30% damage from missiles beyond their first. This is your main damage ability, which you will be maxing first for that reason. Great ability otherwise but you can't really control where the rain hits other than just standing near your target/targets.

Killer Instinct (R): Kai'Sa dashes to a target location near an enemy champion with Plasma and shields herself for 3 seconds on cast.

Items

Doran's blade
Basic starting item. Gives a good amount of HP and some AD in addition. Good for lanes where you feel like you wont get poked down too hard.

Doran's Shield
Pick this up for lanes with lots of poke. Kai'Sa doesn't have that strong early so she will get poked down quite easily and you can't necessarily respond to the damage quite at the same level.

Rapid firecannon, range is power
Great item for Kai'Sa. Often times I go this item as it helps you poke your opponents. It gives you extra range on the empowered auto attack once this item stacks up.

Infinity Edge
Pick this up after you have one crit item. Gives a good amount of AD, doubles your crit chance and also makes your crits deal 10% true damage which is really good vs tanks.

Phantom Dancer
Gives crit which is important, and attack speed boost from this item is really good.
The benefit of this items passive which reduced incoming damage from the champion you are fighting also helps when you duel people and give you a bit of safety in teamfights.

Blade of the ruined king
A bit more niche item on Kai'Sa now that Guinsoo's Rageblade became her core item. It can still occasionally work and its good that it gives some sustain but pick this up only if you are facing a lot of high speed tanks Singed etc.

Guinsoo's Rageblade
Very strong item on Kai'Sa after the changes to her on-hit passive. Allows you to get a lot of on-hit damage and also evolve your Supercharger really fast.

Lord Dominik's regards
Helps really a lot dealing with tanks especially late game where they have 4-4.5k HP.

Berserker's greaves
Pretty standard boots for ADC's. Gives you attack speed and movespeed. In some cases you can substitute for Ninja Tabi but in my opinion this is important for your DPS especially early. When you have these and Guinsoo's Rageblade you have enough attack speed to evolve Supercharger

Guardian angel
Really strong item to pick up, gives AD and a so called second chance for a pretty cheap price.

Mortal Reminder
Good item if you are facing a lot of healing in the opposing team. Especially if the enemy team has a Soraka or Swain. Helps you kill them faster and also gives you armor pen which is always nice.

The Bloodthirster
Gives you lot's of sustain and damage, and the shield helps especially a lot in teamfight's once you stack it up.

Maw of Malmortius
Good item to get if enemy AP carries/carry is fed and you can't avoid their damage.
Gives nice amount of damage and also gives you some sustain after the shield procs.

Conclusion

Kai'Sa is a very diverse champion, who can be played in multiple roles with different playstyles and builds. She offers burst damage and can quickly jump in fights with her Killer Instinct, which can sometimes turn the fights.

Any feedback on this guide is highly appriciated, I will be updating this constantly whenever I have time and I learn more about Kai'Sa.